Low-dose aspirin versus placebo in postpartum venous thromboembolism: a multi-national, pilot, randomised, placebo-controlled trial.

Background: Despite the morbidity and mortality of venous thromboembolism, there is little evidence to guide postpartum thromboprophylaxis in patients at moderate risk. We aimed to assess the feasibility of conducting a double-blind, randomised trial of aspirin versus placebo in postpartum individuals with two or more venous thromboembolism risk factors, mild-to-moderate thrombophilia, or both.

Methods: The pilot PARTUM trial, a multi-national, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, was conducted in seven centres across Canada, France, Ireland, and the Netherlands.

Mechanical Vertebral Body Augmentation Versus Conventional Balloon Kyphoplasty for Osteoporotic Thoracolumbar Compression Fractures: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Outcomes.

Study Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: Surgical management of osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (OVCFs) has traditionally consisted of vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty procedures. Mechanical percutaneous vertebral body augmentation (MPVA) systems have recently been introduced as alternatives to traditional methods.

The efficacy of anchored stand-alone spacers in comparison to conventional cage and plate in anterior cervical discectomy and fusion surgery: A meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials for clinical and radiological outcomes.

Introduction: Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is commonly performed with cage and plate constructs to stabilise diseased or injured cervical segments. Despite it being a commonly performed procedure, there are notable rates of associated morbidity reported in the literature. Stand-alone spacers represent a novel form of instrumentation to conventional cage and plate constructs.

Biomimetic Inspired Hydrogels for Regenerative Vertebral Body Stenting.

Purpose Of Review: This review aims to explore the potential of biomimetic hydrogels as an alternative to bone cement in vertebral body stenting (VBS), a minimally invasive treatment for vertebral compression fractures.

Recent Findings: The use of bone cement in VBS procedures can lead to complications such as incomplete fracture reduction and cement leakage. Biomimetic hydrogels have gained significant attention as potential biomaterial alternatives for VBS due to their unique properties, including tuneable therapeutic and mechanical properties.

The impact of steerable sheath visualization during catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation.

Aims: Incorporating a steerable sheath that can be visualized using an electroanatomical mapping (EAM) system may allow for more efficient mapping and catheter placement, while reducing radiation exposure, during ablation procedures for atrial fibrillation (AF). This study evaluated fluoroscopy usage and procedure times when a visualizable steerable sheath was used compared with a non-visualizable steerable sheath for catheter ablation for AF.

Methods And Results: In this retrospective, observational, single-centre study, patients underwent catheter ablation for AF using a steerable sheath that is visualizable using the CARTO EAM (VIZIGO; n = 57) or a non-visualizable steerable sheath (n = 34).

Understanding and Predicting Cognitive Improvement of Young Adults in Ischemic Stroke Rehabilitation Therapy.

Accurate early predictions of a patient's likely cognitive improvement as a result of a stroke rehabilitation programme can assist clinicians in assembling more effective therapeutic programs. In addition, sufficient levels of explainability, which can justify these predictions, are a crucial requirement, as reported by clinicians. This article presents a machine learning (ML) prediction model targeting cognitive improvement after therapy for stroke surviving patients.

Communication challenges experienced by veterinary professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions have caused major changes in veterinary practice. Utilising a subset of qualitative data from a global survey of 540 veterinarians, veterinary nurses and animal health technicians, we highlight the impact of these changes on communication in veterinary clinical practice. Communication challenges experienced by veterinary team members included lack of face-to-face contact with clients; increased difficulty in communicating in general; inability to demonstrate physical examination, diagnostic findings or treatment information to clients; difficulty in communicating while wearing personal protective equipment; increased 'miscommunication' and challenges in convincing clients of the importance of pandemic-associated protocols.

Frequency, Stressfulness and Type of Ethically Challenging Situations Encountered by Veterinary Team Members During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Ethically challenging situations (ECS) are common in veterinary settings and can lead to moral stress. However, there is no published information about how a global pandemic affects the frequency and types of ECS encountered by veterinary team members. An online mixed methods survey was developed to determine the frequency, stressfulness and types of ECS experienced by veterinarians, animal health technicians and veterinary nurses since the advent of the global COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

Hydroxy group requirement for halofuginone-dependent inhibition of muscle fibrosis and improvement of histopathology in the mdx mouse model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

In Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), the progressive loss of muscle and its ability to function is associated with significant fibrosis, representing the major disease complication in patients. Halofuginone, a halogenated analog of the naturally occurring febrifugine, has been shown to prevent fibrosis in various animal models, including those of muscular dystrophies. Here, two optically active enantiomers of deoxyhalofuginone - a halofuginone analogue in which the hydroxy group in position 3 was removed from the piperidinyl entity - were evaluated with respect to their effect on muscle histopathology in mdx mice.

EMMLi: A maximum likelihood approach to the analysis of modularity.

Identification of phenotypic modules, semiautonomous sets of highly correlated traits, can be accomplished through exploratory (e.g., cluster analysis) or confirmatory approaches (e.

A Microfluidic Platform for Real-Time Detection and Quantification of Protein-Ligand Interactions.

The key steps in cellular signaling and regulatory pathways rely on reversible noncovalent protein-ligand binding, yet the equilibrium parameters for such events remain challenging to characterize and quantify in solution. Here, we demonstrate a microfluidic platform for the detection of protein-ligand interactions with an assay time on the second timescale and without the requirement for immobilization or the presence of a highly viscous matrix. Using this approach, we obtain absolute values for the electrophoretic mobilities characterizing solvated proteins and demonstrate quantitative comparison of results obtained under different solution conditions.

Registered Report: COT drives resistance to RAF inhibition through MAP kinase pathway reactivation.

The Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology seeks to address growing concerns about reproducibility in scientific research by conducting replications of selected experiments from a number of high-profile papers in the field of cancer biology. The papers, which were published between 2010 and 2012, were selected on the basis of citations and Altmetric scores (Errington et al., 2014).

A dynamic global equilibrium in carnivoran diversification over 20 million years.

The ecological and evolutionary processes leading to present-day biological diversity can be inferred by reconstructing the phylogeny of living organisms, and then modelling potential processes that could have produced this genealogy. A more direct approach is to estimate past processes from the fossil record. The Carnivora (Mammalia) has both substantial extant species richness and a rich fossil record.

Paediatric HIV infection in the Republic of Ireland and the need for antenatal screening.

Thirty-seven HIV-infected children have been identified in the Republic of Ireland since 1985. Only 12 (32%) of 37 were followed prospectively from birth. Median age at diagnosis was 18 months (4 weeks to 8 years).

The European Code against cancer: what now?

To coincide with the Cancer Code conference taking place in Chester this week, this article looks at the 'Europe against cancer' programme established by the European Commission to address one of the most important public health problems faced by the EU.